Honesdale council approves pharmacy project

HONESDALE, PA — It’s official. CVS is coming to the intersection of lower Main Street and Fourth Street in downtown Honesdale.

The Honesdale Borough Council voted nearly unanimously to approve a conditional use permit for the development company called the Zaremba Group to demolish most of the sprawling DFIS Building, to build a 13,225-sq. ft. CVS Pharmacy. The pharmacy, which will sit on the busiest road in Wayne County, will feature two drive-through windows. The building was the former Moore Business Forms Printing Center and is adjacent to the railroad.

No one voted against the approval; council president Michael O’Day abstained.

At previous meetings, there had been talk of another developer who was interested in bringing a 100-room Best Western Hotel to the site. But the developer never had a contract with the owner of the property, Steven Putzi, who had decided that the hotel project would not be feasible and that the Zaremba/CVS Pharmacy deal was the best plan for the site.

Planner Tom Shepstone, a consultant to the Zaremba Group, said there was never really another viable project in the works, because “a property can only have one owner at a time.” He added that the council was thoroughly professional in the handling of the matter.

Shepstone said that Zaremba had set aside additional space for perhaps a bank or some other business related to financial services but, he said, “I keep hearing rumors that it’s going to be a Burger King. It’s definitely not going to be a Burger King.”